Peter’s Rockin’ Ear

By Dede Dankelson
BiblioKid Publishing, 2022
Ages 4 and up

Peter wishes he looked like everyone else, but he was born with only one ear. He tries to make one, but nothing works until his parents take him to an ear store. Peter wears his new ear to Shredapalooza. But will it stick long enough for him to feel like a real rock star? Inspired by the true story of Peter Dankelson and the Pete’s Diary mission to amplify self-acceptance. This picture book encourages everyone to embrace their own differences.

The Courage to be Kind

By Jenny Levin and Rena Rosen
Archway Publishing, 2017

Have you been at the grocery store and your child points at someone who looks different and asks loudly, “What’s wrong with that person?” or “Why does he need a wheelchair?” Your first reaction is usually to hush your child and apologize to the person or hope he or she didn’t notice. Telling a child to be quiet and not look can be shameful for both the child and the person with the difference. Instead of silencing our children and ignoring their curiosity, we should embrace uniqueness in a positive way.

In The Courage to Be Kind, authors Jenny Levin and Rena Rosen teach children and parents how to act and respond when they see someone who looks different. Learn with Sam and Ellie as they encounter and interact with several kids in different ways. Ellie is blunt and often offensive. Sam tries to find common ground with each person and provides an example of how to behave. The dramatization of each difference includes photographs and a list of frequently asked questions so kids and parents can learn about various syndromes together. Through a series of scenarios, The Courage to Be Kind offers a tool to facilitate conversations about kindness and to teach with the art of compassion.

Wonder

By R.J. Palacio
Alfred A. Knopf, 2012
Ages 8 and up
Also available in an Illustrated Edition

August Pullman was born with a facial difference that, up until now, has prevented him from going to a mainstream school. Starting fifth grade at Beecher Prep, he wants nothing more than to be treated as an ordinary kid—but his new classmates can’t get past Auggie’s extraordinary face. WONDER by R. J. Palacio begins from Auggie’s point of view, but soon switches to include that of his classmates, his sister, her boyfriend, and others. These perspectives converge in a portrait of one community’s struggle with empathy, compassion, and acceptance.

In a world where bullying among young people is an epidemic, this is a refreshing new narrative full of heart and hope. R. J. Palacio has called her debut novel “a meditation on kindness”—indeed, every reader will come away with a greater appreciation for the simple courage of friendship. Auggie is a hero to root for, a diamond in the rough who proves that you can’t blend in when you were born to stand out.

We’re All Wonders

Written and Illustrated by R.J. Palacio
Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2017
Ages 3 and up

Over 15 million people have fallen in love with Wonder and have joined the movement to Choose Kind. Now younger readers can meet Auggie Pullman, an ordinary boy with an extraordinary face, and his beloved dog, Daisy. We’re All Wonders may be Auggie’s story, but it taps into every child’s longing to belong, and to be seen for who they truly are. It’s the perfect way for families and educators to talk about empathy and kindness with young children.

RELATED: Watch a Recorded Read Aloud and Q&A with R. J. Palacio of We’re All Wonders.

Auggie & Me: Three Wonder Stories

By R.J. Palacio
Corgi Children’s Paperback, 2015
Ages 8 and up

WONDER tells the story of Auggie Pullman, an ordinary boy with an extraordinary face, whose first year at school changed the lives and the perspectives of everyone around him. Auggie & Me gives readers a special look at Auggie’s world through three new points of view. These stories are an extra peek at Auggie before he started at Beecher Prep and during his first year there. Readers get to see him through the eyes of Julian, the bully; Christopher, Auggie’s oldest friend; and Charlotte, Auggie’s new friend at school. Together, these three stories are a treasure for readers who don’t want to leave Auggie behind when they finish WONDER.

365 Days of Wonder: Mr. Browne’s Book of Precepts

By R.J. Palacio
Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2014
Ages 8 and up

In WONDER, readers were introduced to memorable English teacher Mr. Browne and his love of precepts. This companion book features conversations between Mr. Browne and Auggie, Julian, Summer, Jack Will, and others, giving readers a special peek at their lives after WONDER ends. Mr. Browne’s essays and correspondence are rounded out by a precept for each day of the year—drawn from popular songs to children’s books to inscriptions on Egyptian tombstones to fortune cookies. His selections celebrate the goodness of human beings, the strength of people’s hearts, and the power of people’s wills. There’s something for everyone here, with words of wisdom from such noteworthy people as Anne Frank, Martin Luther King Jr., Confucius, Goethe, Sappho—and over 100 readers of WONDER who sent R. J. Palacio their own precepts.

Turtle Boy

by Evan Wolkenstein
Delacorte Press, 2020
Ages 10 and up

Seventh grade is not going well for Will Levine. Kids at school bully him because of his funny-looking chin. And for his bar mitzvah community service project, he’s forced to go to the hospital to visit RJ, an older boy struggling with an incurable disease. At first, the boys don’t get along, but then RJ shares his bucket list with Will. Among the things he wants to do: ride a roller coaster, go to a school dance, swim in the ocean. To Will, happiness is hanging out in his room, alone, preferably with the turtles he collects. But as RJ’s disease worsens, Will realizes he needs to tackle the bucket list on his new friend’s behalf before it’s too late. It seems like an impossible mission, way outside Will’s comfort zone. But as he completes each task with RJ’s guidance, Will learns that life is too short to live in a shell.

Ride High Pineapple

By Jenny Woolsey
Pearls of Wisdom Press, 2016
Ages 10 and up

Issy Burgess is in Year Nine at Pinnaroo High. She hoped this year would be different, but it’s turning out to be just as bad as Year Eight was. Follow Issy through her journal, as she tries to deal with The Beast who calls her ‘Froggy eyes’, ‘Fish Face’ and other cruel names, bouts of paralysing anxiety, feeling ugly, friendship ups and downs, and a crush on Tim – the cutest boy in her class. Can Issy’s passion for skateboarding help her?

A Face for Picasso: Coming of Age with Crouzon Syndrome

By Ariel Henley
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2021
Ages 13 and up

A memoir about coming of age with Crouzon syndrome. At only eight months old, identical twin sisters Ariel and Zan were diagnosed with Crouzon syndrome – a rare condition where the bones in the head fuse prematurely. They were the first twins known to survive it. Growing up, Ariel and her sister endured numerous appearance-altering procedures. Surgeons would break the bones in their heads and faces to make room for their growing organs. While the physical aspect of their condition was painful, it was nothing compared to the emotional toll of navigating life with a facial disfigurement. Ariel explores beauty and identity in her young-adult memoir about resilience, sisterhood, and the strength it takes to put your life, and yourself, back together time and time again.

Ugly

By Robert Hoge
Hachette Australia, 2015; Viking, 2016.
Ages 8 and up

When Robert Hoge was born, he had a tumor the size of a tennis ball in the middle of his face and short, twisted legs. Surgeons removed the tumor and made him a new nose from one of his toes.  Amazingly, he survived—with a face that would never be the same. Strangers stared at him. Kids called him names, and adults could be cruel, too. Everybody seemed to agree that he was “ugly.” But Robert refused to let his face define him. He played pranks, got into trouble, had adventures with his big family, and finally found a sport that was perfect for him to play. As Robert came face to face with the biggest decision of his life, he followed his heart. This poignant memoir about overcoming bullying and thriving with disabilities shows that what makes us “ugly” also makes us who we are.

Shelley: The Uplifting Story of a Battle to Overcome Disfigurement

By Shelley Hull
Hornet Books, 2019

Shelley Hull’s inspirational memoir is a story about growing up as a young girl with facial disfigurement, daring to wish that someday she’d live a normal life and fit in. It records the journey of a timid, shy child with no self-confidence or worth, experiencing the world of modern medicine, maxillofacial surgery, and setbacks around every corner. The eventually successful surgery included more than 20 operations, the most challenging endured during Shelley s teenage years. The extremely rare condition led to almost unbearable facial disfigurement and hearing loss which became the subject of one of the case studies in Derek Henderson’s A Colour Atlas and Textbook of Orthognathic Surgery: The Surgery of Facial Skeletal Deformity. These days Shelley is a confident survivor who seeks to inspire others with her story of hardship, hope and perspective. As she says towards the end of her book, “scars are on my face and body, but not in my heart.”

Normal: One Kid’s Extraordinary Journey

By Magdalena and Nathaniel Newman
Clarion Books, 2021
Ages 10 and up

In this uplifting and humorous memoir brimming with black-and-white comic illustrations, Nathaniel and his mother, Magda, tell the story of his growing up with the same craniofacial syndrome as the boy from WONDER — from facing sixty-seven surgeries before the age of fifteen, to making friends, moving across the country, and persevering through hardships. How they tackle extraordinary circumstances with love and resilience is a true testament to Nathaniel and Magda’s extraordinary family, and to families everywhere who quietly but courageously persist.

Diary of a Beautiful Disaster

Heroes with a Thousand Faces

By Laura Greenwald
Cleveland Clinic Press, 2007

Real stories of people with facial differences – people whose faces are disfigured as a result of cancer, trauma, or a birth defect. Unlike other disabilities, a facial difference not only affects how one is viewed by others but also how one views themself, since so much of our “immediate” identity is wrapped up in appearance. This book explores what it’s like to try and live an ordinary life behind an extraordinary face. Although there are commonalities in every story, such as stares, and ridicule, each person faces unique challenges and realizes different outcomes. Each journey is an adventure and each person’s story leaves the reader with nothing less than a sense of wonder. The stories in this book include viewpoints of not only the people affected by a facial deformity, but also their family members. Peppered among these dramatic stories are chapters on medical and scientific advances, the history of facial plastic surgery, and face transplant.

Children with Facial Difference: A Parents’ Guide

By Hope Charkins
Woodbine House, 1996

Each year, thousands of children are born with facial difference-abnormalities of the bones and tissues of the head and face that are present at birth or appear a few years later. Some conditions occur more commonly, such as cleft lip and cleft palate, while others, such as hemifacial microsomia, Treacher Collins, Apert, and Crouzon syndromes, are rarer. In addition to the emotional hardship of a different appearance and the attached stigma, some of these conditions pose special health concerns.
A resource that parents can turn to for help is Children with Facial Difference, the first comprehensive book to provide parents with up-to-date information and support.

Each chapter of Children with Facial Difference includes parent statements, reassuring and useful bits of information and insights from parents of children with facial difference. These statements help alleviate feelings of isolation and provide comfort and support. With a foreword by Joseph E. Murray, M.D., a Nobel Prize winner in medicine and a pioneer in craniofacial surgery, this book also includes a glossary of terms, a reading list, a resource list of organizations, and an index.

The Facemaker: A Visionary Surgeon’s Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I

By Lindsey Fitzharris
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2022

From the moment the first machine gun rang out over the Western Front, one thing was clear: humankind’s military technology had wildly surpassed its medical capabilities. Bodies were battered, gouged, hacked, and gassed. The First World War claimed millions of lives and left millions more wounded and disfigured. In the midst of this brutality, however, there were also those who strove to alleviate suffering. The Facemaker tells the extraordinary story of such an individual: the pioneering plastic surgeon Harold Gillies, who dedicated himself to reconstructing the burned and broken faces of the injured soldiers under his care.

Gillies, a Cambridge-educated New Zealander, became interested in the nascent field of plastic surgery after encountering the human wreckage on the front. Returning to Britain, he established one of the world’s first hospitals dedicated entirely to facial reconstruction. There, Gillies assembled a unique group of practitioners whose task was to rebuild what had been torn apart, to re-create what had been destroyed. At a time when losing a limb made a soldier a hero, but losing a face made him a monster to a society largely intolerant of disfigurement, Gillies restored not just the faces of the wounded but also their spirits. The Facemaker places Gillies’s ingenious surgical innovations alongside the dramatic stories of soldiers whose lives were wrecked and repaired. The result is a vivid account of how medicine can be an art, and of what courage and imagination can accomplish in the presence of relentless horror.